During These Hard Times
by PoorlyDrawn
Summary: Her captor used to be considered a friend, now he was considered their supreme enemy, but to be taken and used for her love's demise was her worst nightmare. KazuoNoriko Manga based / Abandoned
1. Taken

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I obviously don't own Battle Royale, or I wouldn't be writing a fan-fic! Besides, even if you did sue me, you wouldn't get anything, all I have is a load of junk in my room.

**This fanfic is based on the manga version of Battle Royale, the movie is alright and I haven't read the novel yet, but I really want to, but this is based on the manga.**

**XxX XxX XxXf**

He gazed out, overlooking the southern part of the island. Covered in forest, this beautiful scenery held some of the most gruesome sights you could ever lay eyes upon. Most of them were his doings, but some were from others' mistakes or on purpose. Being forced to brutally murder your classmates wasn't what he thought he would be spending his time doing, but you had to do what had to be done to survive.

A gust of wind blew over the hills and he let his black hair flow in the breeze, a couple of strands hitting his face. Slowly and silently, he walked along the edge of the hill making his way in the direction he remembered seeing some smoke come from last night. He was planning on being able to find a trail that could lead him to his next victim.

Reaching for his trusted machine gun, the mass murderer zipped back up his health bag then leapt from the hillside down into the nearest collection of trees. He dotted in and out of the trees keeping a close eye out for any sign of a human who may have passed through.

Soon enough he passed a cold and burnt out fire. There weren't any footprints to be able to follow, but there was another trail if you looked close enough; a trail of broken stems of leaves that could only have been broken by a human who had passed through. He could easily tell that his prey was at the most, just two hours ahead. Wasting not another second Kiriyama was gone in a heartbeat.

---

"I can tell you are tired. You've slowed down you paste by half, so don't even try and deny it again." Came the call from the heavily built older teen in front.

She sighed and finally admitted it, "I guess there isn't anything I can really say is there?"

Kawada turned to face the younger brunette, a small smirk placed on his face, "I guess not. Come on, we'll take a break here." He placed the health packs down beside a tree then sat next to them leaning on a tree and lit a cigarette.

Taking a puff from the small drug he glanced at the moping teen opposite him. "Look, we both know how Shuuya is. He wouldn't let anything happen to him, not when he knows that there is a way to get you off this island." He tried reassuring her. He knew himself that Shuuya would be fine; it was just a matter a convincing little Noriko over there.

She sighed again lifting herself up and standing shoulders slumped. "I know," she began, "Shu will be fine." She said half-heartedly, but they both knew that she was just trying to convince herself. "I've got to go and..." she trailed off closing her eyes.

Getting her meaning Kawada reached into one of the health packs and brought out a hand gun. Noriko slowly made her way over to Kawada and took the gun, she still didn't feel completely certain holding one, even though they were fighting for their lives out here, but she took it anyway.

As she began to make her way away from Kawada he called out to her "Don't go too far! We aren't familiar with the surroundings and I haven't got any of the wires up!" She gave a light nod as she left which Kawada caught.

Unfortunately the teenager was in such deep thought that she didn't really focus on where she was going. She was worrying so much about Shuuya that when she snapped herself out of her thoughts she wasn't sure if she was ten or one hundred meters from Kawada. She began to panic a little, not knowing who or what was around her. She turned back to face the direction she had just been walking in and gently called out for her classmate.

When no reply came she forced herself to not become more panicked. She began to piece everything together in her head.

She was quite far away from her friend, in an area which she had no idea about and could have insane teenagers roaming about in. She just wanted to go to the toilet and head back, so she decided to do just that. She couldn't have been wondering in different directions, just one straight line, so how hard could it be to find her classmate.

She was going to find a spot where she could do her business and then head back. That is until she heard a branch snap from right behind her.

Rustling from a tree's leaves could be heard next and Noriko could easily tell that another human had come to join her. Whether they were friend or foe she was about to find out.

She turned around to face the noise, gun close to her side and finger on the trigger. She hadn't actually shot anyone yet, all she did was reload them but at least she knew how to use one.

As if in slow motion, a foot appeared from behind a tree and immediately she knew it was a boy. The trouser leg came next then another came and they stood right next to each other. For some reason Noriko just couldn't look at her new arrival, she had such a terrible feeling about them, she already had an idea of who it was and immediately knew that she was pretty much dead already.

The clinking of a machine gun confirmed who it was, there was only one islander who had one; looking up to meet their eyes sure enough she was face to face with no-one other than Kazuo Kiriyama.

---

She stared into those blank, black eyes of his; there was no emotion in them, just, nothingness. Just gazing into that black abyss gave her a shiver.

Noriko wasn't quite sure what to do, the last time she had seen this man was when they were ambushed by him, they being Shuuya, Kawada and her. Shu had then gone to fight Kiriyama by himself and Noriko hadn't seen him since. Yet here was Kiriyama, so what had happened to Shu? Was he already dead? No. That wouldn't happen; it couldn't happen!

Should she kill Kiriyama now? There was no doubt that he was the cause of most of their classmates' deaths, but that means that he was highly dangerous. After their encounter she didn't even know if she would be able to even come close to killing him.

But there was no doubt in her mind that he wouldn't even hesitate to kill her, so if she was going to die here and now she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Her grip tightened on her gun that was still at her side.

Kiriyama saw this in the corner of his dark eyes, he knew what she was thinking, and it was written all over her face. He recognised this girl; she was the one that hung around with the pesky Shuuya. He was becoming a nuisance and he wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. He knew that this girl was precious to him and maybe he could use that to his advantage.

There wasn't any use in killing this girl now if he could use her to kill Shuuya as well, then maybe killing that knew transfer student in the process. Yes, he could see a plan already forming in his mind.

Shakily Noriko lifted up the gun slightly. She didn't really want to be the first one to make a move if Kiriyama wasn't going to harm her, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking, not a single emotion was written on his face, and she really could think properly with his intense gaze on her.

As her gun got higher and almost reached to point where is was point at his chest, Kiriyama disappeared suddenly.

Not having a clue where he had gone her eyes widened and she could already feel her heart beat in her chest. A gust of wind blew right on her and a second later Kiriyama was right beside her, on her left.

His gun in his right hand, tip on her left temple and his left hand on her wrist holding her arm and gun in place. Overall he was way too close for comfort, the only part which was touching her was his hand but his frame towered over her and that was close enough.

She was beyond scared now, she was petrified and also a little confused. Why hadn't he shot her yet? There wasn't any reason for her to be kept alive, maybe he was just stalling her death, but she wasn't really complaining.

With a little pressure on a certain part of her wrist she was forced to drop the gun. It fell to the floor with a clutter and Kiriyama let go of her, Noriko pulled back her arm to her side.

Kiriyama then moved slightly away from her, gun still pointing at her, and reached down for the gun. He placed it inside his health pack and Noriko got a glance of what he had inside it, she was mildly shocked at the amount of weapons he had. She already had an idea that he had many guns and bullets, since their last encounter, but seriously, he was armed to the bone. There was no way that she would have been able to beat him with her pitiful gun, let alone now, with no gun at all. She really felt pathetic.

She looked up at him; he just seemed to be staring at her. They were just standing there, the wind blowing through the trees. Noriko had no idea what to do. She knew she couldn't save herself, she was terrified and she was now in the hands of the most dangerous person on the island. Her only hope now was Kawada coming to her rescue, she had been a long time, and hopefully he would have noticed that by now.

His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Do you have any other weapons?" He asked her with such an even voice.

Her voice however was so shaky and unconvincing "N-no" and he defiantly didn't believe her answer.

"Take off your jacket," he all but demanded. She guessed he was going to search her for weapons, which really wasn't that hard to figure out considering his previous question. So slowly she slid her two arms out of each sleeve and let the school jacket fall to the ground, too scared to be able to hold it.

Kiriyama switched hands to hold the gun and stretched out an arm to feel Noriko but she back away from his touch. Not caring what she did or didn't approve of, Kazuo took a step towards her and reached out to her again, quicker this time so she didn't have time to back away, and put his hand on her left shoulder then slowly felt down her arm.

Noriko hated the feel of his touch. She wanted to smack away his hand and run from him, but she couldn't, she was just too fucking scared. He was now feeling her back and she just stood there. Frozen like a statue.

Kazuo walked round to her other side and felt her other arm but then stopped and just looked at her. She just stared straight in front of herself and felt another shiver go through her because of his gaze.

His hand suddenly went to her chin and he forced her head to turn and look at him. He peered into her eyes and seemed to be studying her. Only thirty seconds later he let go of her face and open up his health bag and placed his gun inside it. He obviously knew that she was too weak and scared to be of any threat to him.

He then went back to searching her for weapons and re-searched her right arm.

Now with two hands free, he stood in front of her and felt her shoulders and then under her armpits. He then slid down both of his arms down the side of her torso and then slid his hands to her abdomen; Noriko closed her eyes tightly as his hands slid upwards and just under her breasts.

She could tell at that very moment that Kiriyama wasn't a pervert. He was only feeling for weapons, not groping at all, but she didn't relax around him for a second. Kazuo then felt round the curve of her breasts, around her bra, and not finding any weapons moved his hands away.

He bent down to the level of her legs and felt round the rim of her school skirt. Then Noriko knew where he was going next, but she could help it, Kiriyama's hands slid up the sides of her thighs and under her skirt. She let out a little gasp and bit her lip while trying her hardest not to kick him.

Kazuo ignored her completely and continued to search for any hidden weapons. He probably disliked this just as much as she did, he wasn't too keen on any human contact and feeling round the frame of this girl's knickers was going way beyond the line of any contact he had expected on this game.

But soon enough he was done and pulled away. Noriko let out a breath that she wasn't even aware that she was holding in. Kiriyama then peered down at her shoes and examined them for a minute before asking her to take them off. Noriko slowly sat down and began to take off her shoes with him watching her every move. She handed them to him; he examined them before giving them back to her.

Kiriyama was now satisfied that she didn't have any hidden any weapons and they both stood up. He knew her well enough to know that she couldn't out-run him and wasn't really a threat in anyway, but just to make sure, he decided to at least tie her hands up.

He didn't have any rope on him, and he couldn't make a strong enough rope with any stuff from the forest around them so he had to use the next best thing, his belt. He unbuckled it and slid it out from around his trousers then fixed his eyes on Noriko who hadn't moved an inch. He stood behind her, took hold of each of her wrists and forced them together behind her back, then wrapped the belt many times around her tiny wrists until they were tight but not too tight about her wrists.

He walked around Noriko and stood in front with his back facing her, then signalled for her to follow him. They both took a couple a steps before Kiriyama stopped in his tracks, spun round and immediately placed his hand over Noriko's mouth while glaring in the direction in which she had originally come from. They stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before Kazuo twisted his hand around so now only a finger was placed onto her lips and she understood to be silent.

His hand was then placed round her arm with a firm grip and he pulled Noriko past himself and pushed her quickly in the direction that they were heading in. She began to walk but Kazuo gave her a shove and she quickened her pace into a small silent jog.

Just for a second she swore that she had heard a quiet called of her name in the distance.

___

_Where the hell is she?_ Kawada was still sitting beside the tree that Noriko had left him sitting beside. _Surely it doesn't take this long for a girl to go to the toilet._

Shogo decided to go and find out what was going on with little Noriko, so he picked up all of the supplies that were lying about and headed in the direction in which Noriko had left.

He wandered for a couple of minutes keeping a vague pathway which he assumed Noriko had taken. He called out her name a little, being careful not to attract any unwanted attention, but not receiving an answer. Now he began to get slightly worried.

_Where the hell has she gone? Oh, god, Shu is gonna be pissed if he finds that I've lost her, or worse._ He gave out one last call of her name, a little louder than the last ones, but, again, received no reply. He couldn't just go rampaging through the forest hoping to find her. Who knows what or who is out there? He didn't even know which direction she has gone in.

What the hell was he going to do now?

**XxX XxX XxX**

**Author's Notes:** Well this is my first Battle Royale fan-fiction and I've decided to base it on Kazuo Kiriyama and Noriko Nakagawa. Love it? Hate it? Please tell me, feedback is greatly appreciated. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to go with this fiction. I can already tell that there may not be a happy ending. It's gonna be hard letting any sort of romance happen in the fic if Kiriyama hasn't got any emotions, but I'll work with what I've got. With this chapter I got some of the ideas from around chapter 59 (I think) in the Battle Royale Manga, with the tying Noriko's hands with a belt and searching her for any weapons. Once again, feedback is greatly appreciated!


	2. Changing Plans

**Don't own Battle Royale; though I would kill to.**

**Again this fanfic is based on the manga version of Battle Royale and I'm halfway through reading to novel version (it's awesome!).**

**And thank you to all of my reviewers!! **

**XxX XxX XxX**

Her mind swirled with un-answered questions, her feet ached from walking and she kept shivering from the bitter coldness of the night.

Noriko was having a hell of a time with her new companion.

Not a word had passed between the two since they had started on foot and frankly Noriko was getting sick of it, she deeply wanted to ask of Shuuya. Unfortunately she was still too scared of Kiriyama to say anything but she desperately wanted something to take her mind off of her aching feet and shivering body. She couldn't even try and wrap her arms around her torso as an attempt to warm herself as her hands were tied around her back.

About another ten minutes of non-stop walking, Noriko finally gave in and let her legs collapse. She fell beside a tree and lent onto the trunk for support. Kiriyama kept on walking as if nothing had happened and she thought with a bit of hope that he was just going to walk away and leave her be until Kawada or hopefully Shuuya, came to save her. The thought of Shuuya worried her so much that she began to feel sick; she also felt like a pathetic Mary Sue.

To her disappointment Kazuo actually stopped and turned to look at her. She expected at least a little bit of anger on his face, as she couldn't keep up with him, but as usual there was nothing there. He made his way over to her then crouched down beside her. She just watched him move and hold onto one of her arms then help her stand back up. Noriko thought that he was just helping her up so that she could start following him again but she was once again mistaken.

Kazuo lifted off his school blazer and swung it right over him and right round her, he then did up the top buttons of it round her neck. Noriko was so surprised that his next act made her let out a yelp. He put his two hands round either side of her waist, hoisted her up into the air and literally through her over his right shoulder. He held onto her waist as so she wouldn't fall then just continued walking as if nothing happened.

"W-wa-wait, w-what?" Noriko stuttered.

"You are cold and exhausted." He replied matter-of-factly.

If he had been anyone else, she would have thought of it as an act of compassion, but this was Kiriyama, so she just let him do what he wanted; besides he was right, she was cold and tired.

___

They walked (well, he walked) for – what Noriko guessed was - another twenty minutes or so, and by now she had no idea where they were, she didn't have her map with her and it was pitch black. Her body was starting to ache with the position she was in, she wasn't cold anymore thankfully for Kazuo's blazer, but she seriously wanted to sleep, she had tried to, but every time she had begun to nod off Kazuo had jerked her back awake, whether it was intentionally or not she didn't know.

She had begun to nod off once again, but the sound of a gunshot woke her up in alarm. It hadn't been her imagination since Kiriyama had also heard it; he had stopped suddenly then turned a sharp left, tightened his hold on her and sprinted in the direction which the sound had come from.

She was now being dragged through the trees at a speed in which she didn't think was even humanly possible. She wanted to do something like ask where they were going, but that was stupid because it was obvious that they were going to investigate the gunshot incident. She couldn't exactly move either; his grip on her was immense and even if he did let her go she would just fall to the ground and slow him down – which he obviously wouldn't allow – so she, once again, just stayed silent.

___

Kiriyama finally started to slow down his pacing, and eventually came to a stop. Noriko wasn't quite sure where they were, all she could see was the clutter of trees in which they had just come from. But when Kazuo slowly lifted her off of his shoulder and pulled her close to his body, so they were hidden behind a tree, she got a glimpse of a massive barn. Curiosity took over her and she pulled her head round the tree and took in the view of a barn in the middle of an opening of trees, there were also a few cars surrounding the barn and in between the two of them was... _what is that?_

She let out a gasp, which was when Kiriyama pulled her back round and put a hand to her mouth.

There were humans there. Not just any human, Mimura was one of them. Shinji was one that Shuuya wanted to team up with. Yutaka was also there with him and she swore that she saw another body lying on the ground nearby Yutaka. _Lying on the ground... he must have been the receiver of the gunshot. Why? Why would Shinji kill someone? Or was it perhaps Yutaka? No, it couldn't have been either of them. Shinji would never take part in a game like this, and as for Yutaka, he was just too much of a wimp to do something of the sort; a bit like myself._

She could hear them talking to each other, Mimura and Yutaka that is. Yutaka had just asked who Mimura could really trust with his life. There was no response to his question for a while; finally she heard the scratching of something skidding along the ground. Kiriyama moved then. She looked up to him as he let her go slightly but still had a hold on her and her mouth.

He pulled her towards the cars and they both ducked behind a white car. She gave him a questioning look which he didn't reply to. She wanted to call out to Mimura, show him that she was here, he would help her. It was then that it hit her, once Kiriyama had taken his hand off of her mouth and began to reach into his supply pack. Kiriyama was the cause of most of their classmates' deaths. What's to stop him from killing Yutaka and Shinji?

When Kazuo pulled out his favourite machine gun she took in a huge breath to yell at the two ignorant boys. Before she could even let out a single noise, Kazuo had his hand back onto her lips and gun pointing to her head. She began to sweat and tears began to fill in her eyes. Noriko mumbled something into his hand and a single tear slide down her left cheek. He knew that she wasn't going to attempt to scream with the gun to her head so he lifted his hand away, she then whispered to him, "Don't do this." with pleading, shiny eyes.

Unfortunately for her, he took no notice of her plead, but when he placed his machine gun down beside her she mistook it for him agreeing. Instead of him walking away or informing Shinji and Yutaka of their presence like Noriko thought he was going to do, Kiriyama took the collar of his school blazer and pulled it right up over Noriko's lips but not beyond her nose, he needed her alive. He tightened it slightly and panic arouse inside Noriko. She made a few more mumbled noises before, Kiriyama picked back up his gun, ignoring her, and aimed it at the two boys.

Noriko just couldn't let her two friends die; she turned to look at the two of them, then back to Kiriyama. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't just knock Kiriyama over; there'd be hell to pay if she did that. Screaming, she couldn't do that either, she'd been muted to a few quiet mumbles.

Before she could do anything else, any other thought, movement, anything, bullets had left Kazuo's gun heading for the hugging boys.

The bullets pierced skin and ran through the body and brain of Yutaka. Noriko watched helplessly as the lifeless body of Yutaka fell to the ground. Her eyes widened and tears were streaking down her face. Why did she let this happen?! Shinji was still alive though, he was kneeling beside Yutaka corpse tears running down his face too.

Noriko then watched him cough up blood before his insides suddenly began to slip out of his blazer, this almost caused her to throw up - the sight really was repulsive. Shinji picked up his gun and pointed it roughly in the direction in which Kazuo and she were hiding; a confused and terrified look planted on his face.

Kiriyama then emerged from their hiding spot behind the car. Noriko also began to stand up but Kiriyama gave her a light shove back and a look that told her to stay. She was too in shock to really do anything else than what she was told.

Kiriyama aimed his gun at Shinji and once again the firing of bullets filled the air. Noriko closed her eyes tightly, all she could do was listen to the gunshots and before she knew it Kiriyama was back beside her, behind the car. Judging by the shots still being fired, she knew that Shinji was firing back in fact she could hear the vulgar insults that he was throwing at Kiriyama. Kazuo then stood back up and started firing again.

Noriko helplessly watched as Kiriyama walked away from her and up to Yutaka. He stopped and looked down at the mattered corpse. When Kazuo raised the gun and aimed it at the skull of Sato Yutaka, Noriko spun her head away so she didn't see the dreadful sight of blood and brain scattered about the ground. Kazuo just walked away from the dreadful picture as if it didn't faze him in the slightest and followed Shinji into the barn.

___

Less than a minute later, Noriko lifted her head up a peered over the hood of the car.

The sound of Kiriyama's light steps could be heard echoing throughout the barn and then the sound of bullets being fired reached her ears. A short cry from Shinji caused her to cringe; there was no doubt that he had been hit. Tears filled up her eyes as she saw the state in which Yutaka's corpse was, and know she was just going to sit by and wait for the same thing to happen to Shinji? Did she really have that little faith in her friends? No and no were the answers to her questions. She had to do something within her power to help Shinji survive Kiriyama's wrath.

More bullets were being fired throughout the barn, and by the sound of the rapid fire it was from Kiriyama's machine gun. Noriko wriggled her hands and wrists to try and free her but when that didn't work she tried to wriggle her mouth free of Kiriyama's blazer, which was also a futile attempt. Gunshots which weren't from Kazuo's machine gun were then fired and someone yelled something about frosty. Noriko, with the support from the car, stood up and made her way around the side of the car. She knew what she was doing was stupid and unsafe, but since when was anything on the island safe or rational?

The sound of shattering of glass came to Noriko's ears and she thought that her own eyes were deceiving her when she saw Mimura leaping out of a window. She began to run towards him when light began to shine from the barn. It confused her for less than a second before it started to blind her. She closed her eyes tightly to block out the vivid light, only to find herself flying through the air from the impact of a massive explosion.

___

Throughout the island various students saw this magnificent display. Many were dazzled by its beauty, others worried for the safety of the occupants of that area of the island and one particular student was cheering for joy at his own decorative slaughter.

Noriko let out a cry of pain when she felt her back smash against a car, which had also been thrown from the explosion. Kiriyama's blazer had slide down from her mouth and somehow her hands had gotten free of his belt. She staggered to her feet, one arm attempting to keep the smoke and dust in the air out of her eyes and the other arm was rubbing the side of her back soothing the pain. The barn, or what was left of it, was still of fire, the heat began to burn her face slightly, but it soon left.

_A bomb? How the hell did a bomb go off? Where did the bomb even come from? Surely there wasn't one just lying about in the barn and one of the bullets hit it and it went off? Kiriyama certainly didn't have one, so that left Shinji. He is amazing, almost perfect at sports and a near genius she had heard. Maybe he... built one? That was absurd! This was a bomb she was talking about_. As she had a little battle in her head she could only just hear someone's voice. It seemed like they were talking to themselves, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

As the dust began to settle, she looked about and noticed someone crouching on the ground, they were holding their body in pain. She stumbled slightly over to see who it was, she couldn't quite see through the smoke and dust but she knew it was a boy. _Which one was it; Shinji or Kiriyama?_ As she got closer she saw that is was in fact Mimura! _He had survived the explosion, not to mention Kiriyama. Speaking of Kiriyama, where was he?_

"Game over, guys... no m-more tokens... I want to...but... but... r-rain ch-check?" Noriko overheard Shinji say. _What is he talking about? Who is he talking to_? She stumbled a little closer towards him.

"Shinji?" She called out to him. She watched from about ten meters away his head turn round to face her; he looked shocked to say the least, but when it registered in his brain that it was Noriko Nakagawa standing in front of him his face softened. She began to walk towards him but stopped after two steps to quickly slip her arms through Kazuo's blazer so it didn't get in the way, then continued to make her way towards him.

Shinji smiled slightly when Noriko crouched down beside him. "What are you doing here?" He asked her with confusion and relief in his voice. Noriko didn't reply as she wrapped her arm around Mimura's shoulders and let him fall into her chest and let out a long sigh. Noriko looked over Shinji's body and saw that he had many bullet holes in his school uniform and that meant that he was in no doubt a lot of pain; but he seemed to have given into it at the moment, he just seemed to be enjoying the warmth that her body was letting off.

Noriko then let out a sigh and rested her chin on top of Mimura's head she closed her eyes for a bit before opening them and eyeing a van that was overturned in front of her. Something seemed off. She couldn't quite place her finger on what it was; that was, until the upside-down door on the van opened. Kiriyama's form could be seen climbing out of the van in the shadows. He silently lifted his machine gun up to aim at Shinji as Noriko's eyes widened in horror.

As quickly as she could, Noriko swung her body round so she was protecting Shinji from Kiriyama. This caused Mimura to come back to reality when his pillow had been removed, he could feel two small wrapped around his large frame, Noriko was hugging his back? Her tight grip sent a pain throughout his system and he let out a grunt.

Noriko was having an inner battle with herself on how to stop Kiriyama from ending Shinji's life. She hadn't stopped him from starting so how would she stop him from finishing? She soon felt a hand on her shoulder and someone pulled her around away from Mimura. Noriko looked up in Kiriyama's eyes and watched as he pointed his machine gun to Mimura's head.

"Stop!" Noriko yelled as she leapt for Kiriyama's arm which held the gun. Shinji's eyes widened as he turned around and saw Kiriyama holding the gun to his head. In instinct he lifted his own gun and aimed it a Kiriyama. The echoing of a gunshot filled the area, a scream followed and everything seemed to go silent from then.

**XxX XxX XxX**

**Author's Notes: **Is that some sort of cliff-hanger? Nope. That's just me being to lazily to write a longer chapter. I think you can already probably guess how I'm going to continue the next chapter. I'm going to be adding in some Kawada bit in the next chapter to show how he's coping with the fact that he's lost Noriko. I'm already worrying whether I'm keeping them in character, especially Noriko. I'm thinking that I didn't write the scene between Shinji and Kiriyama very well, I'm no good with fight scenes and I wanted to keep most things from Noriko's point of view. Anyway... feedback is appreciated.


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